1. Field
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to surgical devices, systems, and methods, especially for minimally invasive surgery, and more particularly provides structures and techniques for supporting a surgical patient and a robotic surgery system at a desired surgical site.
2. Background
The present invention describes techniques for supporting a patient and robotic surgical manipulators of a robotic surgery system within an operating theater, and methods of improving the stability of the patient-robot system.
Minimally invasive medical techniques are aimed at reducing the extraneous physiologic impact and damage to tissue in carrying out a diagnostic or surgical procedure, thereby reducing patient recovery time, discomfort, and deleterious side effects. The average length of a hospital stay for a standard surgery is significantly longer than the average length for the equivalent surgery performed in a minimally invasive surgical manner. Patient recovery times, patient discomfort, surgical side effects, and time away from work are also reduced with minimally invasive surgery.
In traditional minimally invasive surgery, such as endoscopy, surgical instruments are introduced to an internal surgical site, often through trocar sleeves or cannulas. A body cavity, such as a patient's abdomen, may be insufflated with gas to provide improved access to a surgical site, and cannula or trocar sleeves are passed through small (approximately ½ inch) incisions to provide entry ports for endoscopic surgical instruments. The surgical instruments or tools used in traditional endoscopy may have elongate handles extending out from the cannula, to permit the surgeon to perform surgical procedures by manipulating the tools from outside the body. The portion of the tool inserted into the body may include an end effector, by which tissue is manipulated. Typically minimally invasive procedures are performed under the direction of a surgical imaging system, such as by introducing an endoscope to the surgical site for viewing the surgical field. Typically the endoscope is coupled to a digital camera, to permit remote display, the surgeon then activating the surgical instruments while viewing the surgical site on a video monitor. Similar endoscopic techniques are employed in, e.g., laparoscopy; arthroscopy, retroperitoneoscopy, pelviscopy, nephroscopy, cystoscopy, cisternoscopy, sinoscopy, hysteroscopy, urethroscopy, and the like.
Minimally invasive surgical systems have been and continue to be developed to increase a surgeon's dexterity by means of robotic telesurgical systems, so that the surgeon performs the surgical procedures on the patient by manipulating master control devices to control the motion of servo-mechanically operated instruments. In contrast to the elongate handles of traditional endoscopic tools, in robotically assisted minimally invasive surgery, or telesurgery, a servomechanism is used to actuate the surgical end effectors of the instruments. This allows the surgeon to operate in a comfortable position without looking one direction (towards the monitor) while manipulating handles of surgical instruments that are oriented in another direction (for example, into the patient's abdomen). Telesurgical or robotically operated instruments also may greatly increase the range of motion and degrees of freedom achievable for end effectors at the internal surgical site.
As more fully described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,696,837, the full disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, a computer processor of the servomechanism can be used to maintain the alignment between hand input devices of the controller with the image of the surgical end effectors displayed on the monitor using coordinate system transformations. This allows the surgeon to operate in a natural position using anthropomorphic hand input devices and motions aligned with the image display, despite the fact that the actual surgical instruments are inserted via otherwise awkward arbitrary access positions. The endoscope may optionally provide the surgeon with a stereoscopic image to increase the surgeon's ability to sense three-dimensional information regarding the tissue and procedure. Typically the image captured by the endoscope is digitized by a camera, such as a CCD device, and processed for display to the surgeon and surgical assistants.
In robotically assisted surgery or telesurgery, a surgeon typically operates at least one master controller to control the motion of at least one surgical instrument at the surgical site. The controller will typically include one or more hand input devices or masters, by which the surgeon inputs control movements. The master controllers and surgeon's view display of the endoscope image may be separated from the patient by a significant distance, and need not be immediately adjacent the operating table. The master controller mountings and endoscope display may be integrated as a control console, referred to herein as the “surgeon's console” portion of the telesurgical system, which may be connected by signal and power cables to the servomechanisms, endoscope cameras, processors and other surgical instrumentation. The console is typically located at least far enough from the operating table to permit unobstructed work space for surgical assistants.
Each telesurgical master controller is typically coupled (e.g., via a dedicated computer processor system and connector cables) to a servo-mechanism operating a surgical instrument. The servo mechanism articulates and operates the surgical instrument, tool or end effector to carry out the surgical procedure. A plurality of master controllers may operate a plurality of instruments or end effectors (e.g., tissue graspers, needle drivers, cautery probes, and the like) based on the surgeon's inputs. These tools perform functions for the surgeon, for example, holding or driving a needle, grasping a blood vessel, or dissecting, cauterizing, or coagulating tissue. Similarly, surgeon's master inputs may control the movement and operation of an endoscope-camera driver servomechanism, permitting the surgeon to adjust the view field and optical parameters of the endoscope as the surgery proceeds. In a typical telesurgical system, the surgeon may operate at least two surgical instruments simultaneously, (e.g., corresponding to right and left hand inputs) and operate an endoscope/camera driver by additional control inputs. Note that optionally the servo-manipulators may support and operate a wide variety of surgical tools, fluid delivery or suction devices, electrical or laser instruments, diagnostic instruments, or alternative imaging modalities (such as ultrasound, fluoroscopy, and the like).
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,184,601; 5,445,166; 5,696,837; 5,800,423; and 5,855,583 describe various devices and linkage arrangements for robotic surgical manipulators. The full disclosure of each of these patents is incorporated by reference. The servo-mechanisms, their supporting/positioning apparatus, the surgical instruments and endoscope/camera of a telesurgical system are typically mounted or portably positioned in the immediate vicinity of the operating table, and are referred to herein collectively as the “patient-side” portion of the telesurgical system.
Generally, a linkage mechanism is used to position and align each surgical servo-manipulator or endoscope probe with the respective incision and cannula in the patient's body. The linkage mechanism facilitates the alignment of a surgical manipulator with a desired surgical access point. Such devices will generally be referred to herein as “setup arms”, it being understood that a number of quite different mechanisms may be used for this purpose. The above referenced pending PCT/US99/17522, published on Feb. 17, 2000 as WO0/07503, describes a number of aspects and examples of manipulator positioning or setup arms, and the full disclosure of this publication is incorporated by reference.
The setup arms must be supported in proximity to the surgical patient. The portion of the robotic system supported in proximity to the surgical patient may have a weight of several hundred pounds. It is desirable to support the setup arms in a manner that minimizes the relative motion between support for the setup arms and the surgical patient because the positioning of the surgical end effectors may be relative to the ground reference provided by the support for the setup arms. The mechanical path from the patient to the support for the setup arms should be stiff so that a force between the support and the patient causes a minimal displacement of the system. Various devices have been used to provide a stiff support for the setup arms.
In the system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,837,883 a patient side cart as shown in FIG. 4 supports the setup arms and the robotic surgical manipulators. While the patient side cart provides a stable support for the setup arms, it places a bulky device in the work space used by the surgical assistants and provides a tenuous connection between the setup arms and the surgical patient.
In the system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,933,695 the setup arms and the robotic surgical manipulators are supported by ceiling and floor mounted structures. While this removes a substantial amount of the support device from the work space used by the surgical assistants, it lengthens the connection between the support for the setup arms and the support for the surgical patient. This decreases the stiffness of the system and the stability of the position of the support device relative to the surgical patient.
In the system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,083,571 the setup arms and the robotic surgical manipulators are supported by the operating table using equipment rails provided along the sides of the table top. This reduces the amount of structure in the work space used by the surgical assistants and shortens the connection between the support for the setup arms and the support for the surgical patient. However, the equipment rail provided on the side of an operating table does not provide a stiff support for the relatively heavy setup arms and robotic surgical manipulators.
It would be desirable to provide a support for the setup arms and the robotic surgical manipulators of a robotic surgical system that does not unduly add to the amount of structure in the work space used by the surgical assistants and provides a rigid base of support that minimizes movement relative to the surgical patient to create a system with high stiffness.